Masked, We Advance : Technological Subterfuge, Statistical Instrumentalization, and Professionalization Strategies in Clinical Psychology, 1900s-1930s
Fierro, Catriel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut d'Història de la Ciència)

Date:	2026
Description:	27 p.
Abstract:	Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists were locked in ongoing "turf wars" over diagnostic authority and therapeutic jurisdiction, with the former confined to subordinate roles as IQ scorers and the latter retaining exclusive control over interviews and comprehensive mental examinations. Focusing on disciplinary negotiations and boundary work during the interwar period, this article reconstructs how young clinical psychologists sought to subvert this hierarchy by turning to psychotechnological research in personality adjustment assessment as a form of technological subterfuge: a covert strategy for asserting authority through research rather than open contestation. Using the New York Institute for Child Guidance as a case study, I show how its inaugural fellows in psychology appropriated elements of psychiatric technique, subjected them to experimental and statistical refinement, and repackaged them as standardized instruments that both democratized diagnostic practice and relativized psychiatric oversight. Dissecting this professionalizing strategy reveals the twofold nature of personality testing and sheds light on the epistemic politics of clinical work.
Grants:	Generalitat de Catalunya 2023/BP-00065
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Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Published in:	Isis (Chicago, Ill), Vol. 117, Num. 3 (September 2026) , ISSN 1545-6994

DOI: 10.1086/742426

Available from: 2027-09-30 Postprint 51 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut d'Història de la Ciència (IHC)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles